With all respect for personal preferences, sizes and sailing styles, the verdict is in: long harness lines. Big, open straps.

I don't have isobars-like-time to bloviate about this. Manuel, on a proper wave board, with proper technique, the big straps will not have an adverse effect on your cutback.___________________________________________________________
FORMERLY of www.windsurfingmag.com

If you overdo this, the straps become ineffective and downright dangerous. I agree that you want to open up the straps a little to get more of your foot over centerline, but taking this too far has its downsides for sure with the extreme case being that the strap no longer keeps your foot locked to the board (it's fundametal purpose).

The great thing about foot straps - they're adjustable. Open them incrementally until you find the setting that works for you.

Let me gently disagree with Josh. With all respect for individual bodies, whatever the verdict is for most windsurfers might not fit me or you.

Our different physiques have important variations. Let me prove my point. I can sit cross-legged on a floor and rise to a stand (without using my hands or arms) while still in a cross-legged position. Many of the people in my yoga class can't do that. I'm guessing a third or more of the windsurfers on this forum can't do that. The only reason I can is because my thighs, compared to my whole leg length, are shorter than most.

Our variations in toe length, foot length, arch heighth, ankle angle, etc., and the footgear we do or don't wear while sailing all affect what works for each of us regarding footstraps.

During the last aloha classic it was interesting to note that not all riders were fully open. It's not as critical in side to side-off conditions as riders are already facing the right direction

In side-on to on-shore conditions, the twist is that much greater at the bottom turn (with the sail in clew-first position) which is why I believe it's better to have a more open straps as to not get stuck and increase the carving commitment.

Del, I should have made my statement more clear: with all respect to preferences and bodies.

However, here's what I'd like to stress: Control over your board while it's touching the water generally comes from where the bottom of your fit hits the board, not where the top of your foot hits the strap. Decades of tight straps have taught many of us only to feel in control when we feel the reassuring pressure of that footstrap across the top of our foot.

Do you need footstraps to control our boards? Yes, or else we wouldn't have them. However, the last thing I want is for my foot to be locked to the board, cause when that board loses contact with my body in mid-air, I want to be getting away from it as cleanly and quickly as possible.

When wave riding, there are times when we use force toward the top of the strap to commit harder to a turn. Higher strap, more force and ability to control the degree of force.___________________________________________________________
FORMERLY of www.windsurfingmag.com

Josh, I'm glad I gently disagreed with you. I'll credit myself a little for bringing out your additional comments about controlling the board with the bottom of our foot instead of the top.

I apologize for being off topic in the remainder of this post.

"sit cross-legged on a floor"...buttocks on the floor with your legs crossed in front of you with both ankles still on the floor,....as in what has been called American Indian style. Here is a link for a video that shows how to stand from that position without using your hands or arms.
http://www.ehow.com/video_2356224_stand-up-sitting-indian-style.html
Leaning forward is part of the technique for getting up. Doing the reverse ..going into the seated position from a standing position can be helpful to learning to stand from the seated position...but your buttocks will drop to the floor the last few inches.

And boom height, and harness line length, and hook height, and harness style, and many other aspects of WSing. But don't try to tell that to people who like uniformity.

No, that isn't the issue. You often give bad advice, and then try to pass off criticism from people who know better than you by suggesting you're contrarian or an individualist. You're neither.

Would you care to tell the poster in which decade you last spent time doing bottom turns and cutbacks in ocean waves?

Tell it to the dozens of people all over the world, from novices to the biggest names in the sport, who have agreed with and/or thanked me for my WSing advice, methods, tenets, analyses, etc. ... online, in person, in magazines, and on websites on multiple continents in multiple languages. You should really think through your implication that just because you donít agree with me, Iím wrong or contrarian; thereís another implication.

We notice, too, that you donít express disagreement with others when they agree with me.

And the OPís original question was about board control in heavy chop. Been there, done that, for 33 years and hundreds of thousands of miles.

I only point out your erroneous comments when I see them. I do not say that every single thing you post is wrong. But enough of them are, particularly in the areas of freestyle, flat water sailing, advanced jibes, wave sailing and getting a board planing that it may seem to you like I do.
Speaking of uniformity, you have been saying the exact same things (online at least) for twenty years now. Which suggests to me that you've learned nothing in two decades (aside from how awesome you are) while the technology and techniques have improved and expanded substantially. Which is why I suggest to you a few times every year that you take a clinic. Imagine combining your methods, tenets, analyses, etc with the state of the art in technique. If nothing else you're likely to get much more efficient, which you've acknowledged is not your strong suit. And maybe the planing duck jibe. Afterwards you could write up your analysis. Think of your fans around the world. Surely they'd appreciate it.

isobars wrote:

PeconicPuffin wrote:

isobars wrote:

And boom height, and harness line length, and hook height, and harness style, and many other aspects of WSing. But don't try to tell that to people who like uniformity.

No, that isn't the issue. You often give bad advice, and then try to pass off criticism from people who know better than you by suggesting you're contrarian or an individualist. You're neither.

Would you care to tell the poster in which decade you last spent time doing bottom turns and cutbacks in ocean waves?

Tell it to the dozens of people all over the world, from novices to the biggest names in the sport, who have agreed with and/or thanked me for my WSing advice, methods, tenets, analyses, etc. ... online, in person, in magazines, and on websites on multiple continents in multiple languages. You should really think through your implication that just because you donít agree with me, Iím wrong or contrarian; thereís another implication.

We notice, too, that you donít express disagreement with others when they agree with me.

And the OPís original question was about board control in heavy chop. Been there, done that, for 33 years and hundreds of thousands of miles.

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